![]() In 1798 the post office was listed in Market Square, close to the site of the modern Leinster Arms public house, but by 1838 it was located on Claregate Street, one door up from the Police Station on the corner of Claregate Street and Bangup Lane. ![]() It closed in March/April 2007 but has been renovated as a youth space known as ‘The Hive’ and ‘In Sync’ Kildare Town Youth Project. The small, red-bricked building on the south side of Dublin Street was the old post office. Today the last remaining tower is referred to as ‘The Castle’ and is owned by Joe and Marie Flanagan, proprietors of the Silken Thomas and Lord Edward Guest House. The bungalow next door remains occupied, now called The Silken Rooms but the castle was last occupied in 1996 (at least the ground floor of it). The stone Castle is credited to his successor, William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. The first fortification was probably built by Strongbow, Richard de Clare,Įarl of Pembroke (died 1176 A.D.), who established his power-base at Kildare in 1172 and who is famously remembered in Kildare in the name CLARE-GATE STREET (there is another suggestion, that the term refers to the Irish word Cléirigh - Sráid na Cléirigh, or road of the clerics). Once the Normans arrived in the frontier town of Kildare, it being on the edge of their territory, they quickly set about building defences and this developed into The prosperity and location of the town made it an attractive place for plunderers and power-hungry magnates and it became an important site during the early years of the Norman invasion of Ireland.
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